Retake: Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the proccess of constructing this product?

Whilst producing my music magazine, I used a range of new technologies in order to do so. Firstly, in order for me to create my magazine products, I had to take pictures for me to do this. I used the Canon EOS 400D camera.

I took my pictures in front of a black backdrop so I could use the backdrop colour as my background for my final product. With these cameras I learnt how to properly focus a camera, as well as setting up where the main focus point of a picture was going to be. Another new piece of equipment I learnt how to use was the bowen 500 flash kit. These lights produced a professional light source for my pictures, and without the flash, which is what the kino-flow lights produced, I would not have been able to produce quality pictures.

Also, if there was no flash, the image would turn out very dark, not very visible and would have bad quality. I also learnt how to set up the backdrop properly, although this is not a technology as such, it is another way of ensuring my final product was at the highest possible standard. Whilst using this backdrop, I had to be very selective with my costume and props, for example if I was to use a black backdrop, which I did, I could not use too much black in the costume as it would have blended in with the background. As i learnt from my first try at doing the music magazine that using a different coloured background and cropping it out was a bad idea, and did not work properly.

I also realised that as I was using the bowen 500 flash kit, and my model was wearing sunglasses, I had to make my model face a certain way in order for the light not to be reflected.

Another new form of technology I used that I was not familiar with, was Photoshop. This software allowed me to change or manipulate my image to turn it into a real media product, my magazine.

Whilst using Photoshop I learnt how to add images onto a canvas, choose a canvas size( A4 for my front page and contents page and A3 for my double page spread),

add text to an image as well as shapes and how to add effects to my text.

Another new skill i learnt whilst using photoshop to produce my music magazine products was the free transform tool. This allowed me to change the shape of my image, text and shapes by pressing cmd and t (on a mac).

I also learnt how to properly position my text, images and shapes so they was in sync with each other, and also aligning my texts etc using a grid that was on Photoshop. I also used two web technologies to create my media products, the first being used in the production of my final products, this was a website called dafont.com. This allowed me to download different fonts onto Photoshop. I used the fonts I downloaded on dafont.com, on my masthead, contents page and double page spread.

The second new technology that I used was a blogging site called blogger.com, this site allowed me to publish my work throughout producing my media product. Although I have not had any experience with blogging sites, this was a new way in which I could upload and display my work.